Accessing JSON elements

Question

I am getting the weather information from a URL.

weather = urllib2.urlopen('url')
wjson = weather.read()

and what I am getting is:

{
  "data": {
     "current_condition": [{
        "cloudcover": "0",
        "humidity": "54",
        "observation_time": "08:49 AM",
        "precipMM": "0.0",
        "pressure": "1025",
        "temp_C": "10",
        "temp_F": "50",
        "visibility": "10",
        "weatherCode": "113",
        "weatherDesc": [{
            "value": "Sunny"
        }],
        "weatherIconUrl": [{
            "value": "http:\/\/www.worldweatheronline.com\/images\/wsymbols01_png_64\/wsymbol_0001_sunny.png"
        }],
        "winddir16Point": "E",
        "winddirDegree": "100",
        "windspeedKmph": "22",
        "windspeedMiles": "14"
    }]        
 }
}

How can I access any element I want?

if I do: print wjson['data']['current_condition']['temp_C'] I am getting error saying:

string indices must be integers, not str.

`requests` is an amazing way to get along with JSON..If you are handling complicated URL's.. use it. — Surya, Apr 21 '13 at 10:12

score 161 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 21 '13 at 09:48

161

import json
weather = urllib2.urlopen('url')
wjson = weather.read()
wjdata = json.loads(wjson)
print wjdata['data']['current_condition'][0]['temp_C']

What you get from the url is a json string. And your can't parse it with index directly. You should convert it to a dict by json.loads and then you can parse it with index.

Instead of using .read() to intermediately save it to memory and then read it to json, allow json to load it directly from the file:

wjdata = json.load(urllib2.urlopen('url'))

edited Apr 21 '13 at 09:48

jamylak

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answered Apr 21 '13 at 09:20

Yarkee

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1

cool, it is working now. can you please explain me why this is? – doniyor Apr 21 '13 at 09:21
1

Yarkee has already explained @doniyor. It's because it's been converted to a dict using `json.loads()`. You're just trying to access the JSON directly... without transforming into anything readable by Python or using a module to do so. – Ben Apr 21 '13 at 09:34
1

Is there a way to return this without knowing the index, assuming there were more current condition entries? – user2019182 Feb 23 '18 at 16:06

score 35 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 21 '13 at 10:05

35

Here's an alternative solution using requests:

import requests
wjdata = requests.get('url').json()
print wjdata['data']['current_condition'][0]['temp_C']

answered Apr 21 '13 at 10:05

alecxe

462,703
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2

Is there a way to return this without knowing the index, assuming there were more current condition entries? – user2019182 Feb 23 '18 at 16:06

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 19 '17 at 17:39

8

'temp_C' is a key inside dictionary that is inside a list that is inside a dictionary

This way works:

wjson['data']['current_condition'][0]['temp_C']
>> '10'

answered Sep 19 '17 at 17:39

HazimoRa3d

517
5
12

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 20 '21 at 08:46

2

You can do it this way too:

MYJSON = {
    'username': 'gula_gut',
    'pics': '/0/myfavourite.jpeg',
    'id': '1'
}

#changing username
MYJSON['username'] = 'calixto'
print(MYJSON['username'])

edited Jul 20 '21 at 08:46

Tomerikoo

18,379
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answered Feb 06 '20 at 22:26

Deividson Calixto

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 09 '21 at 15:24

import json

# some JSON:
json_str =  '{ "name":"Sarah", "age":25, "city":"Chicago"}'

# parse json_str:
json = json.loads(json_str)

# get tags from json   
tags = []
for tag in json:
    tags.append(tag)
  

# print each tag name e your content
for i in range(len(tags)):
    print(tags[i] + ': ' + str(json[tags[i]]))

Alok Tiwari · Answer 6 · 2019-12-27T08:36:51.757

1

Another alternative way using get method with requests:

import requests
wjdata = requests.get('url').json()
print wjdata.get('data').get('current_condition')[0].get('temp_C')

edited Dec 27 '19 at 08:36

answered Dec 27 '19 at 08:19

Alok Tiwari

354
3
8

Elinaldo Monteiro · Answer 7 · 2022-08-08T20:11:21.750

1

I did this method for in-depth navigation of a Json

def filter_dict(data: dict, extract):
    try:
        if isinstance(extract, list):
            while extract:
                if result := filter_dict(data, extract.pop(0)):
                    return result
        shadow_data = data.copy()
        for key in extract.split('.'):
            if str(key).isnumeric():
                key = int(key)
            shadow_data = shadow_data[key]
        return shadow_data
    except (IndexError, KeyError, AttributeError, TypeError):
        return None

filter_dict(wjdata, 'data.current_condition.0.temp_C')
# 10

Using the multiple fields:
filter_dict(wjdata, ['data.current_condition.0.temp_C', 'data.current_condition.1.temp_C']) This working as a OR when take the first element found

# 10

edited Aug 08 '22 at 20:11

answered Feb 19 '21 at 10:33

Elinaldo Monteiro

725
9
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This solution throws an error because of the syntax ( := in line 5) – athelas Oct 25 '22 at 15:12
:= Is a new feature do Python 3.8 is called of *Walrus Operator* :) https://realpython.com/python-walrus-operator/ – Elinaldo Monteiro Oct 26 '22 at 13:29

Jay Young · Answer 8 · 2021-07-21T11:36:30.813

Like other answers have pointed out, the accepted answer to this question seems to ignore the data structure misunderstanding of the original poster.

The main issue seems to be that the original solution treats the JSON purely as a dictionary, when in fact it is a...

dictionary within a list, within a dictionary, within a dictionary

Thus, ['data'] is required to access the top-level key:value pair of the dictionary, ['current_conditions'] accesses the next level of dictionary, then [0] must be used to access the first element of the list (which has only 1 element).

Only then can ['temp_C'] be used to access the actual value for that key and retrieve the data.

x={
  "data": {
            "current_condition": 
                [{
                    "cloudcover": "0",
                    "humidity": "54",
                    "observation_time": "08:49 AM",
                    "precipMM": "0.0",
                    "pressure": "1025",
                    "temp_C": "10",
                    "temp_F": "50",
                    "visibility": "10",
                    "weatherCode": "113",
                    "weatherDesc": 
                        [{
                            "value": "Sunny"
                        }],
                    
                    "weatherIconUrl": 
                        [{
                            "value": "http:\/\/www.worldweatheronline.com\/images\/wsymbols01_png_64\/wsymbol_0001_sunny.png"
                        }],
                    "winddir16Point": "E",
                    "winddirDegree": "100",
                    "windspeedKmph": "22",
                    "windspeedMiles": "14"
                },
                {
                    "cloudcover": "0",
                    "humidity": "54",
                    "observation_time": "08:49 AM",
                    "precipMM": "0.0",
                    "pressure": "1025",
                    "temp_C": "5",
                    "temp_F": "50",
                    "visibility": "10",
                    "weatherCode": "113",
                    "weatherDesc": 
                        [{
                            "value": "Sunny"
                        }],
                    
                    "weatherIconUrl": 
                        [{
                            "value": "http:\/\/www.worldweatheronline.com\/images\/wsymbols01_png_64\/wsymbol_0001_sunny.png"
                        }],
                    "winddir16Point": "E",
                    "winddirDegree": "100",
                    "windspeedKmph": "22",
                    "windspeedMiles": "14"
                }    ]        
            }
}


print(x['data']['current_condition'][0]['weatherDesc'][0]['value'])

# results in 'Sunny'

In answer to another question in comments,

"Is there a way to do this without knowing the index, assuming there were more current condition entries?"

Assuming numerous current_condition entries it is unlikely that you would just want one value, or if you do then you'll likely have another piece of information to locate that specific value (i.e. location or something).

Assuming you data set is named x, i.e. x = {"data": ...}.

If you want all of the current_condition entries you can loop through the list (of current_conditions) using:

y = []

for index in range(0,len(x['data']['current_condition']))
   y.append(x['data']['current_condition'][index]['temp_C'])

please remove any image and post a minimal structure as formatted text. — devReddit, Jul 20 '21 at 15:09

Accessing JSON elements

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